THE LIVING IMAGE is a unique collaboration between new media artist, GRAHAM NICHOLLS, theatre designer ROMA PATEL, and site-specific artist, TRUDI ENTWISTLE as part of a series of LIFT commissions exploring the poetics and politics of London's urban landscape. The cityscapes of London provide a backdrop to our lives, passageways which we subconsciously navigate.

Exploring the concept of urban London through our memories and fantasies of city life, The Living Image brings the psychological and physical spaces together, creating an experiential relationship with the environment. A virtual reality installation The Living Image blurs distinctions between what is real and what is computer generated.

Individuals will enter a multi-sensory interactive space wearing stereoscopic glasses to allow the 3D environment to be experienced on a large screen.

Through a synergy of video, sound and the 3D space, you are invited to create your own journey within the installation as each reaction triggers a new experience.

Each experience will be unique.

The Living Image is a FREE, timed ticket event and is open 10.00-21.00, Monday to Friday.

In 1999 Graham Nicholls had his first solo show in New York City. This was to launch him onto an international arena. Since that time his work has become more and more experimental and cutting edge. With work such as LAM exploring the possibilities of both technology and installation. LAM was a ground breaking work, drawing upon not just Nicholls' deep knowledge of psychology and hypnosis but also the latest new media. Nicholls calls these kinds of works 'Immersive Art', a term normally used only in Virtual Reality. Nicholls sees this concept as being much wider and a natural extension of Installation art for our times. The term 'Immersive Art' also applied to his installation 'Epicene' which used audio to place the viewer into a hypnotic state, allowing the viewer to have an intimate and personal experience with the work.
For 2004 Graham Nicholls has been commissioned to create a Virtual Reality Installation called 'The Living Image'. The work uses the latest VR and 3D technology as well as audio/video resulting in a highly interactive experience controlled by motion sensors.
As well as work that places the viewer in a new kind of experience Nicholls also believes it is important to place himself within these experiences also. For the last 14 years he has experimented with different forms of trance, hypnosis and sensory/perceptual deprivation. ln his video work 'State 1' he was placed into a deep hypnotic trance challenging his ability to communicate. He was taken to an almost animalistic condition in which movement was the only way he could express the experience. He related later that "it was like being at the eye of the storm, I felt simply calm and clear", yet his outer expressions were almost violent.
Beyond his understanding of technology and psychology, Nicholls work is also deeply rooted in a social perspective formed from his working class roots in London. Graham Nicholls is a complex artist, his work is far from the one liner. In 2001 'Westway' was shown internationally, portraying violence in a way rarely seen in film or video. The work was designed to look at the mythologies of violence, ultimately placing the viewer as both the victim and the perpetrator. Westway takes you on a journey through violence, oppression, empowerment and to non-violence drawn from the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi.
Ultimately Graham Nicholls' work continues to grow and explore the deepest areas of human experience in the most modern and original of ways. It is an art that gets to the core of creativity, and asks us to question where that core is located within ourselves.
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http://www.theLivingImage.org